


London With You

by rainyrowan



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Christmas, F/M, I HOPE Y'ALL LIKE IT, LITERALLY, London AU, Lucas Friar - Freeform, girl meets world - Freeform, idk anymore, riley matthews - Freeform, riley x lucas - Freeform, rucas, rucas au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-10-20 04:51:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17615834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainyrowan/pseuds/rainyrowan
Summary: An au set 8 years after the Matthews’ moved from New York to London. At this point, Riley’s a thriving 22-year-old woman who’s on her own, especially during this Christmas season. That is, until a young Lucas friar stumbles upon her apartment building.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey everybody! i came up with this idea during the holidays, but never really got around to finishing it. but here we are, a month (late)r and i continued it! tbh, i hoped for this story to become a one shot. however, it eventually exceeded the one shot word count limit of 3,000. so, think of this as a short multi-chap story! i hope you enjoy reading this and i’ll see y’all in chapter 2!!

The cold December atmosphere fills the air, as Lucas Friar strolls through the streets of London.

He’s been walking for 30 minutes straight with one large duffle bag and at this point, no sense of direction given that his uncharged cell phone means lacking a GPS. With that, it takes all of his brain power to remember the address Asher had sent him.

It’s safe to say that this is probably one of his worsts nights. Nearly freezing to death is something he definitely does not need at the moment.

After a while, he finally stumbles upon a tall building with a name so familiar that he decides to take his chances and see if it’s the right one.

The front desk manager smiles as he sees Lucas entering the building.

“Good evening, Sir! How may I help you?” He says, still offering a bright smile.

“I was just wondering if Asher Garcia lives here?”

“Hold on, give me one sec.” The manager scurries onto his desktop and does a quick search.

“Alright, is this him?” He tilts the monitor in Lucas’ direction.

His eyes widen as he sees a photo of his friend and lets out a sigh of relief. “Yes!”

“Okay, cool! His apartment number would be 498 and that’s on level 4.”

“Thank you so, so much.”

“No problem at all! You have a great rest of your night, sir!”

Lucas flashes a slight grin at him as he heads towards the elevator doors. He hops into one of them whilst thinking about how lucky he was when finding the right building.

When he reaches the 4th floor, it didn’t take him long to find his room. Although, when gets there, he spots an envelope with his name on it, taped to the door. Lucas yanks it out and reads what it says.

Hey Buddy–

I’m so sorry about what happened with Missy. I knew you should’ve left her while you still could. But hey, I’m not writing this letter to prove you wrong for dating that stuck-up bitch. (Saving that for when I actually get to see you in person *wink*) I’m writing this because a family emergency came up, and I won’t be home until after the holidays. My deepest apologies! In the meantime, you can still crash at my place. I cleaned it all up for you and left a key underneath the ‘Welcome’ mat.

You make yourself feel at home now. See you soon.

Regards,

Asher.

Although Lucas was bummed out that Asher isn’t home, he didn’t necessarily saw this as that big of an issue since he just needed a place to stay. That is, until he unfolded the welcome mat to find that no key was there.

A tired sigh escapes his mouth. “Great.”

He slides down against the wall, trying to figuring out what he’s supposed to do next. He’s pretty much homeless until Asher comes back, which definitely worries him.

Seconds later, one of the apartment doors open and a woman steps out. She’s quite tall and was also dressed in athletic wear. Although, what really gave Lucas a sense of familiarity was her long brown waves. After locking her door, she turns around, enabling Lucas to practically go out of his mind.

“Riley?!”

Riley offers a double take, before exchanging the exact same reaction. “Lucas?”

Lucas couldn’t believe it. He scrambles to his feet and walks towards her.

They haven’t seen each other in ages, ever since her mother revealed that she decided to transfer to London to take up her promotion. Lucas never thought he’d see Riley ever again.

“Oh my god, hi!!” She gives him a tight squeeze. “What are you doing here in London?”

His smile slightly fades away. “If I’m being honest, I’m kind of in a crisis right now.”

She frowns. “What? How come?”

“Well, it’s a really long story.”

“Good thing I practically have all the time in the world. Do you have someplace to be?”

He laughs. “Nope. Definitely not.”

“Alright, you can crash at my place for a bit… How ‘bout that?”

“That’d be wonderful, but don’t you have someplace to be? You were just about to leave.”

“Well, I don’t really have much going on. If anything, I felt productive tonight and decided to go to the gym downstairs. But that can wait!” She smiles, unlocking her door.

Riley leads him inside, and he instantly notices the smell of cinnamon lingering through the air the moment he steps in. Once he gets a good look at everything, he also realizes how minimalistic and neat her apartment was. She had grey walls and light-wood floors. In Lucas’ opinion, this interior design didn’t seem to match the personality of the girl he had once knew. Taking in his surroundings, he thinks about how much she’s grown since then.

Although, he still feels this familiar sense of safety. Home. He always has around her. Despite all that happened in the past couple of years, that apparently didn’t seem to change.

“So, this is my apartment. It ain’t all that big, so my apologies there.” Riley explains.

“No, I really like it. It’s quite cozy if you ask me.”

“Aw, well I’m glad to hear that! Oh, I’ve got to show you something!” She grabs his wrist and drags him into what appears to be her room.

Lucas gasps as he sees it. “No way.” Across from them lies a white bay window, similar to what Riley had growing up.

“This bay window was actually the reason why I got this apartment.” She then slightly frowns, “Too bad I don’t have anyone to share it with me.”

Lucas turns to Riley. “Maya?”

“How is she? We lost contact in a sophomore year.”

“Well, that’s because she made new best friends around sophomore year.” He scoffs, “They go by drugs, alcohol, partying, and Zay.”

Riley’s eyes widen. “You’re kidding. Zay too?”

He shakes his head. “We all tried so hard to stop them.”

At this point, she starts walking over to the bay window. Lucas trails behind her.

“What happened after?” She asks, taking a seat.

“Our whole gang pretty much fell apart after that. Too many fights and arguments went on constantly. Things were just too toxic.” He pauses. “In that very moment, I realized how fucked up we all were without you.”

“I–” Riley couldn’t seem to process what she had just heard. “I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry–”

Lucas stops her. “Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault. As a matter of fact, I think they’re all doing pretty well currently. I haven’t been speaking to them, but rumor has it, Maya eventually ended up getting an art scholarship to CalArts.”

A smile creeps back onto her face. “Really? That’s good.”

The both of them spend the next couple hours catching up on the time that they’ve missed together. Lucas further discusses what’s been going on with the rest of the gang, even though he’s not entirely sure if his information is accurate since he’s only been hearing about them through other people.

Riley talks about her career and accomplishments. Turns out, she ended up majoring in journalism and became a fashion journalist at British Vogue. Like always, Riley never fails to keep Lucas in awe of her.

“That’s amazing. I’m so proud of you, Riles.” Promptly, the sound of Lucas’ stomach grumbling interrupts her, leaving her laughing hysterically.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” He laughs.

“It’s okay! C’mon, let me make you dinner.” Riley says as they head on over to her kitchen.

Lucas takes a seat on the bar stools behind the island, while she rummaged in her fridge.

“I wasn’t expecting a visitor today, therefore I didn’t really go out and buy groceries… All I have is Instant Ramen Noodles. Is that fine with you? Or if you want, I can go out real quick to get some food.” Riley offers.

“That’s fine. Do you need any help?”

“I can take it from here. Thanks, though.”

He takes a seat at her bar stool as she pours a pot of boiling hot water onto both ramen bowls. She then places one in front of Lucas whilst sitting next to him.

“So… You wanna tell me how you wounded up here?”

Lucas laughs in spite of himself. “Alright.”

“You see, around senior year of high school I ended up dating, well, Missy Bradford.”

Hearing this, Riley stops attending to her food and turns to him. “Huh, really?”

Lucas throws his hands up in surrender and drops his head down. “Look, I don’t really know what I was thinking but-”

“Lucas.” Riley interrupts. “It’s okay.”

He sighs. “But hey, during that time I was accepted to UC Davis as a veterinary major.”

“Wait, so you’re a-?

“Yes, Riley. I’m a veterinarian.” He says smiling.

Things obviously took a positive turn at this point, given that Riley hops off her seat to offer him an embrace. “I’m so proud of you.”

She thought back to when they were both at middle school and they had to work on a project about human connection for their history class. She remembered how they shared their very first connection when he told her that he wanted to become a veterinarian. It was a secret. The fact that he never told anyone, but her, meant the whole world to Riley. Even as much as hearing that Lucas actually is one right now.

“Thanks, Riles. But anyways, I was able to pursue my dream and once I graduated college, it’s like everything went at about a hundred miles per hour.” Lucas rambles on about how he was mainly stationed in California.

“About a month ago, they moved me here in London. And since I was still dating Missy during this time, she came up with the idea of moving into one of her father’s apartments just a couple blocks away from here, actually. I wish I could’ve called you or something. It would’ve made moving here so much easier.” He chuckles.

Riley drops her head down. “I can’t believe it. You were here for a whole month. You didn’t live too far away either. If only we kept in touch…”

“I know right? But hey, we’re here now. So, it’s fine.”

She looks back up at him and offers him a gentle smile. “Lucas, why were you seated in the hallway earlier?”

“We were just always fighting. I would have to come home every single day to her being such a pain in the ass. Coming home to a very toxic household isn’t that easy, Riley.” He pauses. “Especially when you come home to see another guy with her.”

Riley’s eyes widen. “She was cheating on you?”

“Yeah. This just happened two days ago, Riles. I had to leave. Miss just wasn’t worth it anymore. She never was. I packed my essentials, booked a hotel, and just left.”

“I always knew she was bad news.” She mentions, shaking her head.

“Tell me something I don’t know. Missy eventually kicked me out. Luckily though, my friend Asher offered a room at his apartment. It’s just a few doors away, actually. But he won’t be back for a while. Something came up and he had to leave.”

Riley’s eyes widen. “Asher Garcia? He lives in this building?” Lucas nods.

“I should really be getting out more!” She laughs. “But hey, you know you’re welcome to stay here for as long as you want.”

“Really?”

“Of course. I have a spare bedroom, you can stay there in the time being.”

Now it’s Lucas’ turn to give Riley a hug. “Thank you.”


	2. Chapter 2

Riley and Lucas grew much more fond of each other as the weeks go by. As roommates, they managed to instantly understand each other’s living habits too. For instance, it became well known that Lucas is pretty good when it comes to cooking meals, therefore he officially became chef of the household as Riley remains not being able to even cook eggs without completely burning it.

Along with that, Lucas discovered that Riley would get up bright and early to attempt yoga. He found this out when hearing a loud thump on his first morning living with her. Out of concern, Lucas dashed out to find Riley lying on top of a yoga mat, looking like she had fallen down. Lucas would’ve helped her up, but she got right back to her feet and attempted to do a yoga pose, before falling once again.

This happens almost every single morning afterward. 

One morning, Lucas wasn’t awoken by yoga ratchet, rather what seemed to be Riley yelling at someone. He gets up and out of his room to find her sitting at the dinner table, surrounded by her laptop along with a few papers lying around. She also appeared to be having a fairly heated discussion on the phone. 

“You okay?” Lucas mouths.

Continuing her conversation, she offers him a nod. “You know what? I’m going to have to call you back.” 

After she hangs up, Lucas takes a seat right next to her. “What’s wrong?”

“Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve, Lucas. Every year, I fly out to Philadelphia to spend the holidays with my family.” She explains. “I booked my fight a while ago, but it got canceled. There’s a snowstorm coming up.”

“Did you tell them?”

“Yeah, I was just on the phone with mom.” She sighs. “I was already irritated when the airlines called me. Calling her just made it way worse. She’s been convincing me to book an earlier flight. Although I didn’t get around to it until it was too late and now she’s making me feel a whole lot guilty than I already am.”

“But there’s really nothing that you could about it now.” He responds.

“Exactly.”

Lucas folds his arms. “Hey, you mentioned that they’re celebrating in Philadelphia, right?”

“Yeah. They’re going to have it at Feeny’s and their whole ‘gang’ will be there. More or less, it’s basically a family reunion.”

“Is Shawn going to be there?” He questions. Riley nods. “That means Maya’s coming too.”

A short pause comes between them as Riley fiddles with her thumbs. “That’s what my dad told me, yeah.”

“And that’s why you’re upset? This was your chance to reconnect with Maya and have a ‘Christmas reunion’ of your own but because of the snowstorm, you can’t.” He offers her a smirk. 

“Alright! You got me!” Riley yells, throwing her hands up in the air. “But you know what? It’s fine. I’ve got you, right? And we’ve reconnected as well.” She then grips his shoulder and smiles. “You’re my Christmas reunion!” 

Lucas laughs, nodding his head. “Yeah, alright.” 

The next day, Riley quickly phones her parents once again, this time on video call. She informs them about what’s been going on and how she was not going to spend Christmas alone. Topanga was surprised, yet relieved to see Lucas with her. Cory, on the other hand, was not as pleased. 

“First, you’re in my daughter’s bedroom. Years later, and you’re now in her apartment?! I just can’t get rid of you, can’t I?” He glares into the camera. 

“No, sir.” He chuckles. “I’m not too sure if that’s possible.”

“Ugh!” He exclaims, waving his hand around, leaving Topanga to end off the call. 

“Well, Lucas, I’m really happy that you’re there keeping Riley company, especially during this time of the year. Just be sure to take care of one another, alright?” Riley and Lucas nod at the same time.

“Good. Now, I’m sorry, Riley, that you can’t be here with us. But I’m wishing you two a very Merry Christmas! Okay, well I’ve got to go now. Be safe!”

“Thanks, Mom! Bye!” Riley says before hanging up. 

After sorting things out with Cory and Topanga, Christmas preparations begin immediately! Only 20 minutes in, Lucas instantly realizes that spending the holidays with Riley will be far more crazier than anticipated.

Like a switch, she suddenly becomes her own version of Monica Geller as she instructs Lucas on where she wants the decorations to be and how she wants them done. 

They first start off with the easy part: Miscellaneous decorations. This would have to include placing random Christmas-themed knick knacks that Riley has collected over the past couple years, to their assigned areas. 

Every once in a while, Lucas would place an item where they’re not supposed to be, which seriously infuriates Riley. He’s never seen this side of her, but he honestly finds it hysterical. 

Later on, the Riley and Lucas work on lighting. Riley has a love for fairy lights and has loads of them. 

She puts on some Christmas tracks in the background, causing her to loosen up.

Mariah Carey's “All I Want For Christmas Is You” starts playing, which already signals Riley to stop what she’s doing and get up off her feet. She dances around like the little goofball she is and always was. The nostalgic reminder had Lucas smiling from cheek to cheek. 

“You know,” He laughs while struggling to hold up the lights that they’d been hanging. “It’s kinda hard keeping these fairy lights up myself. They’re literally about to fall.”

“So what?! Let them fall!” She pants, trying to speak. “You should come over here and dance with me!”

Lucas raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, I think we’ve established, long ago even, that I don’t dance.” 

“C’mon! It’s just me! What, are you afraid of getting embarrassed, Mr. Perfect?”

“Oh, please. It’s gonna happen.”

Riley starts dancing towards Lucas. She pulls him to the middle of the room, letting all the fairy lights fall to the ground. 

She continues to dance around while Lucas stands there awkwardly. “I’m sure you can bust a move, Lucas! C’mon, give it a try!” 

He sighs. “I warned ya.” He slowly starts to dance, moving his hips around.

Still dancing, Riley offers him a double take before completely stopping to watch. Her jaw drops, allowing her eyes to widen. “Oh my God.” She finally bursts into laughter, not being able to even breathe. She then falls to the ground.

“Riley!” Lucas stops to help her up. 

Riley’s still on the ground, fighting her laughter to breathe. 

“Just so you know, I’m never dancing for you ever again.” He rolls his eyes. 

“No! Lucas, that was amazing!” She lies finally calming down.

Riley eventually gets up to ask Lucas to dance with her once again, promising that she won’t laugh at him. He continues to refuse but agrees to twirl her around every once in a while.  
Afterwards, they finish hanging lights around the apartment until finally moving onto setting up the Christmas tree.

“Lucas,” Riley says whilst hanging up ornaments. “How do you celebrate Christmas with your family?”

“Well, it obviously wouldn’t be your typical city celebration. For us, we had bonfires and barbeques.” He smiles as he reminisces. “We usually celebrate Christmas Eve, going into midnight. An hour or so beforehand, our whole family would gather around the campfire and simply just talk and share stories.”

Lucas looks back up at Riley, who apparently stopped what she was doing to listen attentively. She was always so good at that. They both were. 

“That’s wonderful.” She responds. An idea then strikes her as her eyes widen. “There are fire pits up at the roof of the building. No one ever really goes there. We should do that later.”

“I would like that.” Lucas agrees. 

He then shuffles into the huge box filled with ornaments. He tilts his head in confusion when he picks up a little painted one. A smile then creeps onto his face. 

“You still have this?” He asks Riley, hanging it right in front of her. 

Apparently, it was an ornament that Lucas painted for her. 

She grins. “Why wouldn’t I?” 

Riley and Lucas had never spent Christmas together. Even when they were dating back then, they never have. Lucas would always fly back to Texas with his family every single year. So, they celebrate on their own time on a different day, typically a day or two before Lucas’ flight. Along with their celebration, they also have gift exchanges. On their very last celebration together, before Riley and her family migrated to London, he painted her a small ornament with a purple cat on it. Truth be told, Lucas was secretly a really good artist.

Riley hangs his ornament right at the front center of the tree. She turns to him. “I’m happy that I’m spending Christmas with you.”

He smiles. “Likewise.”

Later on in the evening, Riley took Lucas up to the roof later that night, as promised.

“You know, you didn’t have to get me anything,” Lucas says examining the rather large box that Riley was carrying as they were walking up the stairs to the roof. 

“You can’t say that, you got me one too!”

“And what exactly makes you think that?” He raises an eyebrow.

“You’re not that slick, Huckleberry, I see it dangling out of your pocket.” 

Lucas looks down at his coat to see her gift hanging out of his left pocket. He sticks his hands in his pocket to hide it.

Once they finally reached the deserted rooftop, Riley takes a seat in front of a fire pit, placing Lucas’ gift right next to her. 

“I hate walking up the stairs.” She pants. 

As she takes a minute to catch her breath, Lucas takes the initiative of lighting the fire pit. Once he managed to do so, he sits right down next to Riley. 

He extends his arms out to feel the warmth on his hands before rubbing them. “That feels so much better. It’s too cold here.”

“I’m actually surprised it’s not snowing.” Riley states. 

They talk about nothing and everything until Lucas pulls out his phone to see that they’re at a minute prior to midnight. “It’s almost Christmas,” He says showing his screen to Riley.

“Wow, my first Christmas without my parents and I’m not balling my eyes out or anything. Very impressive, don’t you think?” She laughs in spite of herself.

“Yeah,” Lucas glances down at his phone once again to see a text from Asher. He ignores it when he sees the time. “Riles, it’s Christmas!”

“Oh my gosh, Merry Christmas, Lucas!” They both get up off their seat and exchanged a hug.

Riley then picks up Lucas’ gift that was sitting right next to her. “Here,” She says handing it to him. 

Lucas takes it and lifts the top to find another box inside of it. He laughs, opening the other box and finding another one in it. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” He raises an eyebrow.

“Go on,” Riley says, waving her hand.

He continues to find boxes in boxes until he’s left with one. He opens it and pulls out a yellow notebook. The front reads “Riley and Lucas Forever!” along with many other scribbles and doodles. Lucas smiles but tilts his head in confusion. 

“What is this?”

“Well, it’s this little thing I made when we were still in middle school,” Riley states, as he flips through the notebook in amusement.

“This very notebook contains every little thing that could ruin me if ever placed in the wrong hands.” She laughs. “From embarrassing sketches and letters or poems written to you, it’s all there. I realized that I apparently also took the initiative of sticking photos, movie tickets from dates, etcetera, in there too.”

“God, I was such a weirdo for doing these things, huh?” She mutters, tucking in strands of her hair behind her ear. 

Lucas' eyes fall on her after flipping through her book. “I love it.”

Setting her gift down, he searches his pockets to find the gift he was going to give to Riley. He pulls out a long brown box and hands it over to her. She takes it.

“I really hope you like it.”

She gasps when opening it. Inside lies a little rose gold necklace with an autumn leaf chain. “It’s beautiful.” Lucas takes it, placing it around her neck.

“Back then, you gave me an autumn leaf, telling me how we have this one little life and for a lot of it, we’re just blowing around in the wind,” He begins. “But if we’re lucky, you said, life will allow us to land on the right person.”

“These past couple of days have been truly difficult.” He pauses. “You know, staying in a toxic relationship without even realizing it and then later on getting kicked out isn’t the best thing to endure,” Lucas explains, letting out an unnecessary voice crack. 

“But, life knew what was best for me, and here I am.” Lucas extends his hands out with a smile.  
“I’m glad I fell into your lap. Once again.” He drops his arms. 

The starlit sky and the ambiance of the neighborhood below them easily add on to this perfect moment. 

Riley couldn’t help but smile. So many thoughts ran through every corner of her mind. A familiar feeling of compassion, which she obtained for Lucas even back then, came rushing back upon her. Is she really falling for him again?

One thing's for sure: The Lucas who she first fell for, literally, was standing right in front of her. From his smile to his personality, he has not changed. 

Out of impulsiveness, Riley places a hand on his cheek and pulls him towards her. Their eyes meet, only centimeters apart.

“Me too.” She whispers before pressing her lips against his. 

Lucas would always mention having his moment with Riley. And they would-- They were always too good at sharing moments with one another that could last a lifetime, this being one of them.


End file.
